The Catch of Having a Crafty Blog

Either I'm in a creative slump, have tons of time to write a post, but no projects to talk about. Makes for very regular posting, but not all that exciting reading

Or

I'm keeping myself so busy I have tons I could talk about, but no time to string together the words and pictures it takes to make a post.

 

Since it's been over a month since my last post, I'm pretty sure you can guess which applies to me right now.

I'm taking the time now though, so scroll down and see what I've been up to.

 

First, some of the WIPs from last time have become FOs. I think all the links are in the last post, but if not let me know and I can point you towards the patterns.

 

My fancy washcloth - Soft and Sproingy, still loving the Dishie.

 

 

The HurlyBurly was finished in time for BFs nepjew's birthday and he loved it.

Edit - I forgot the picture!

 

Flower power - A test knit, will be a gift for my younger niece. I think it looks like it could have come from the Plants vs Zombies game, so I borrowed BFs little zombie doctor for photo time.

 

Baby Surprise Jacket - which now has a baby-to-be in mind, BFs older nephew and his GF are expecting. I'm calling it finished, but I'll still have to sew on the buttons once I know whether the baby is a boy or girl. Once that's done, I'll take the final project pics and then gift. For now, you can have my preseaming pics -

Lumpy-looking mess

And all folded up, front and back

 

And for my last FO, Charlotte's sweater. This one wasn't a WIP on my last post, in fact I finished it in three days. This is the second wurstwärmer I've knit, and that helped it fly by a little quicker. I knit the size small again, but at a tighter gauge and longer length. After a year of wear, the last one was starting to be both too saggy and too short, so hopefully those changes will help the new one fit her better for longer. I also went from Hikoo Simplicity to the (sadly discontinued) Felici Sport. I love how the striping turned out, and was happy to see it has a higher nylon and still feels just as soft.

Here's a picture of it laying out, to show the short row shaping that works perfect for these types of dogs

And a shot of her modeling it begrudgingly. Charlotte just isn't the camera hound that Sadie is.

 

Now to the continuing WIPs -

My gypsy scarf is still moving along. After a mishap where I had to reknit it several inches, I decided to play it safe/smart and throw a lifeline in at the halfway mark.

 

 

Related to that little mishap I just mentioned, I decided something more mindless was needed for knitting while watching Walking Dead. So, the hexiflats for my barely started BeeKeeper's quilt are now not just for car rides anymore.

Here's a recentish picture of what I have so far -

 

 

Aaaaaaand for brand new WIPs -

Because I have almost zero willpower when it comes to New Things I picked up another couple of craft books and a few supplies to get me started with them (three cheers for tax refund time!)

 

Doodle Stitching Embroidery and Beyond by Aimee Ray

I know this sounds crazy, being that I constantly whine about hating sewing but when I saw the cute little mushroom pincushion on the cover I got drawn in. By the time I peeked inside the book knew I had to have it, and that me and sewing were going to have to make friends just enough for me to get the hang of this style of embroidery. Seriously, if you are at all crafty, and need a high dose of in your face adorableness, you need to check this book out.

Being that I'm an absolute embroidery newbie, with far more enthusiasm than skill, I'm not expecting all that much out of myself right away. I picked up some plain white fabric out of the remnant bin, one of those handy 100-some odd colors of floss packs (which was only $2 more than a 30 pack - huh?!?). I still had a couple of the hoops I got at the thrift store back at Christmas time, so once I transferred the pattern to fabric using the super high tech technique of tracing against a window (flashback to elementary school days there!) I was ready to start.

I decided to start with the family tree. Not because I particularly want to make a family tree (in fact I plan to leave the name circles off) but I loved the tree scene and it seemed like a good sampling of stitches to practice.

 

To say I'm slow going at this would be an understatement, but in my defense I just barely started working on it. Another month or two ... or three and I might actually finish!

 

Slow moving, yet awesome brings me to the other book I bought

 

Extreme Double Knitting by Alasdair Post-Quinn

I've done a few double knitting projects before- a potholder, bookmark and a panel for a tote bag. I wanted to learn more though. How to make nicer edges, do some shaping stuff like that. This book should help me with that and more. More colors, cables, different patterns on each side ... So much packed into this book.

Warning is that these patterns look like they are concentration heavy. I'm planning on using it for when I want a challenge, definitely not chatty-knit-group or TV watching friendly (at least not yet!)

I've starting knitting a trivet using one of the exercises on two pattern double knitting and some cotton from my stash.

 

I'm only a little ways in, but you can already see the pattern coming out. I'm not sure I like the idea of twisting the stitches on purpose, but I'm trying to reserve judgement until I'm done since I'm not going to switch partway through! After all, a trivet is a pretty easy thing to experiment with, it's not like looking imperfect would really hurt anything.

 

I had a few other things going, including spinning and a dye experiment. I'm going to save that for my next crafty dry spell though, because this post has gone on long enough (in fact, I feel like I should offer a gold star to anyone that reads this far!)

 

As busy as I've kept myself, there are still too many neglected WIPs in the basket. The two getting to me the most are my Sherlock blanket (so many awesome squares just begging to be knit) and my nieces' playmat (after such good progress starting out I have totally stalled over the past month)

I'm promising myself to give them both (along with my other WIPs) a little more attention before starting anything else new.

 

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